A witch's natural history
By: by Giles Watson
Edition: First edition in paperback.
Publisher: Troy Books
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 174
ISBN-13: 9781909602007
Subjects: Witchcraft; History; Nature worship; Animal worship; Folklore
Description: "A Witch's Natural History, originally published as a series of essays in The Cauldron, is a meditation on the relationship between folklore and nature ... Giles Watson explores the lore, legends and life-histories of a selection of animals which are commonly employed as motifs in the history of witchcraft: culturally maligned creatures such as reptiles, amphibians, crows and rats. He also casts light on the magical significance of more commonly neglected birds, spiders, insects and snails, before turning his attention to plants, and whole ecosystems which have cultural associations with witchcraft. He combines a call for a new reverence for nature with a fascination for some of folklore's strangest representations of our dependence upon it: from the toad-bone amulet in East Anglian witchcraft to the seductive Queen Rat of the Toshers in Bermondsey ..."--Back cover.
Notes: Line illustrations and figures by author; includes bibliographical note about the author & further reading recommendations.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Unfamiliar spiders; title: The witch and the insect; title: Slugs, snails and sorcery; title: The curse of the oracle: corvids in myth and lore; title: Yaffles, gabble-ratchets, wudu-snites and assilags; title: 'Foul and loathsome animals': Amphibians and the lore of the witch; title: Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting': the magical reptile; title: The queen rat and the Hanoverian curse; title: Cryptograms: the spore-bearing plants; title: Through the lychgate; title: The witch by the hedge; title: The witch by moor and wood and shore; title: Beyond the crooked stile; title: Epilogue: the living bones, a meditation.